Child of the Mountain
by Elanor Pam
Summary: [AU] Once upon a time, there was a SOLDIER 1st class called Zack. Then he met a girl and was screwed, not for the first time, nor for the last. Now they search for the other maidens and the fountains... [Chapter 02]
1. Running away

The child of the mountain

Chapter 01

February 9, 2006: started fic. Let's see where it takes me to, considering I only have one scene clearly planned, and it's a long way in coming.

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Once upon a time, there was a young man called Zack. He was part of SOLDIER, a military organization that existed once upon a time, and he was so good at it he was 1st class. This SOLDIER organization was created, organized and maintained by a conglomerate called Shin-ra, that once upon a time owned most of their world; they didn't always have to do nice work or even work at all (since not a lot of people bother you when you own most of the world), but Zack was very satisfied with his paycheck and lack of jobs to make up for the aforementioned paycheck.

After all, the paycheck and free time, along with the SOLDIER status, let him freely indulge in the favorite pastime of most young men 19 years of age: womanizing. And as it happens in most stories that start like this, womanizing turned his life upside down.

It all started with, gasp, a girl. Girls are truly evil, despicable creatures.

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This specific girl was a poor 15 years old orphan that had been adopted by a poor woman and made a living out of growing and selling flowers in the middle of the garbage dump called slum where all the poor people lived – once upon a time. She was pretty, though, so it made up for all that, was what Zack would tell himself after meeting her for the first time; it also made up for the gil he spent buying a bunch of flowers when he didn't even like flowers. Dumping them on the kitchen counter, he tried to make noodles and failed when he slept through the timer alarm, so he called take-out and ate some weird wutaiese food he didn't find particularly tasty, but it was an interesting experience.

He didn't really think much about the flower girl. Actually, after dumping the flowers on the counter, he didn't think about her at all, and he'd blink at the flowers come morning, wondering where they came from, and dump them unceremoniously in the trash can. A few days later, he ran into her selling flowers again, and felt sort of guilty, so he bought some more flowers. He also flirted a little more, and she flirted a little back, and giggled, and it was good. Coming home he stuck the flowers in a glass to keep himself from throwing them away again, and proceeded to not think about her at all again.

Then he ran into her again. They got along well, and after running into her five or six times he started to think about her at home, too. Just a little, but it was something.

One night, he felt a lot of pain in his joints. He had horrible flashbacks of his father telling him pain in the joints was sign of a change in season, then fell asleep. Sometime later he'd wonder if his body knew things were going sour.

He had actually just overexerted himself in the gym, though.

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In the Shin-ra headquarters, a meeting was beginning.

"What happened?" asked Reeve, while brushing away the remaining cinders from Scarlet's shot folder.

"There was a cockroach!" squeaked her, smoking gun still in her shaking hands, and Reeve located something that looked suspiciously like a fried cockroach in the middle of the scattered ashes.

"You'd think someone would have set up a bomb or something, with that noise," sniffed Rufus, trying to ignore it as Heidegger's fire extinguishing maneuvers showered both Reeve and Scarlet in white smoke.

Someone coughed from the doorway, and Shin-ra's Department Heads all made their best to look like they were behaving properly. The President simply ignored the icing on two of his subordinates as he made his way to the big chair, cigar in hand, while Hojo shuffled to another seat as he walked in as well.

They sat on their respective chairs at the same time, and somehow it sounded so ominous that even Rufus couldn't help feeling a chill.

"I have interesting news," said the President.

And the room remained in the most complete silence until Hojo cleared his throat. The one with the news was not the president, after all.

"You must remember the… underground fountain recently found in the cliffs to the south of our city," he started. "And the similarly built and shaped structure in the Condor Mountain Area."

A pause for effect, in which the remaining Heads just stared at him. He nodded to his papers in his usual skittish manner.

"After extensive research from my department, we have connected those two structures with the recently captured specimen from Condor Mountain and her… abnormal capabilities."

Another pause.

"After some coercion, the specimen was willing to share knowledge on the two structures in topic. The results are… impressive."

Another pause, in which Hojo glanced up at the President with a grin, as if the two had planned a practical joke that was about to start. The other Heads shuffled; a grinning Hojo was not a sight for the weak of heart.

"The two structures, unlike our initial beliefs, are not remnants of an ancient civilization. In fact," he grinned wider, "they're not at all man-made, as was confirmed by four different research teams."

The other chairs didn't seem particularly impressed by that, except Reeve, who raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that two stone basins, adorned with crystals of unknown origins and properties, can be spontaneously created by nature in two completely different, and completely hidden, places?"

"Not only two," Hojo's grin widened. "Our specimen specified seven of them, in fact. All over the world."

"And why would that concern us?" asked Rufus, supported by Heidegger's and Scarlet's puzzled nods.

"At first," interrupted the President, and five heads immediately turned to him, "our main interest was the crystal. According to Hojo's research…"

Hojo nodded, straightening his glasses. "Despite not appearing in any radar whatsoever, a sample of the crystallized substance was confirmed to produce a great amount of energy. No means have been found to harness this energy so far, and the results of our research haven't proven satisfactory… yet. It can't be used as materia, and all attempts at powering any kind of appliance with it resulted in severe malfunction of said appliance."

The President nodded, turning to the others. "You must remember the occasion of our capture of the so-called Holy Maiden from Condor, and the confirmation of her unnatural powers."

He puffed out a lungful of smoke. "Despite our initial expectations, I didn't have any hope of finding a profitable use for her capabilities… but after heavy questioning, she revealed a story that would be considered nothing but a fairy tale, if we didn't have proof of it in our hands." He smashed his cigar against an unsuspecting ashtray. "You have a summary of our findings regarding the Holy Maiden and her relationship to the fountains in your folders. You have five minutes to read it."

He glanced disdainfully at the blackened remains of Scarlet's folder and set back to wait.

After five minutes of Scarlet peeking over Reeve's shoulder, they were all a lot more interested. After some more discussion, they had the sketchy beginnings of a plan, and after two hours of debating they had a complete strategy.

"Call the Turks," finalized the President. "We definitely need our Miracle Girl from the slums, now."

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At the same time Shin-ra's top guys decided to lunge for the Miracle Girl, Zack was buying flowers from this same Miracle Girl.

"I've been wondering," he started, blinking down at his flowers while trying to think of a conversational topic, "how do you grow flowers in this dead place that is Midgar?"

"I have mad skills," she winked.

They giggled. Yeah, their conversations were usually this silly.

"Seriously, now, I still don't know where you live," Zack tried again, scratching the back of his head. "I'd think we know each other for long enough to disclose this kind of information."

She just shook her head. "Nope, I don't think meeting you now and then in a span of three weeks is long enough," she smiled sweetly.

Zack wilted.

"But since you're making such a sad face," she continued, winking, "I think I can tell you where my work base is located."

Zack perked up.

"Hm, so you _are_ curious about my flowers, aren't you?" she smiled again. "In the Sector 5 Slums there is an abandoned church. There's a pretty strong hint in that church," she winked again.

Zack wilted. "…a hint? You want me to play detective? That's evil!"

She smiled again, looking down to fiddle with her flower basket, and Zack was suddenly attacked by a feeling that she wasn't happy. He quickly ran his own words back in his mind, but couldn't see how they would sound anything worse than playful, then she smiled up again and the feeling laughed awkwardly, waved an apology and then sprinted away.

"Here is another hint," she said, giving him a white flower. "You'd better investigate it well…"

Zack held the flower awkwardly between two fingers, and almost dropped it when she stood on the tip of her toes to kiss his cheek. Then she took advantage of his full body paralysis to turn away with a smile and go sell her flowers somewhere else.

The first thing he thought when he was able to think again was: wow, I'm such a stud, go me. And the first thing he did when he could move again was grin from ear to ear and skip back to his house, thinking about waking up an hour or so earlier the next day to search for this abandoned church.

Oh, the flirting was going well, but he never expected her to make the first move. And Zack entertained pleasant thoughts of having a girlfriend for longer than a month until he noticed an old guy staring at his flowers like he had never seen such a thing in his life.

He blinked down at the old man, and the old man blinked up at him with a start.

"I-I'm sorry, young man," he said in an asthmatic voice, "Those are some pretty flowers you have there."

He grinned, and Zack grinned back out of politeness.

"I-I… rather like the white one you have there," continued the old man.

"Which one?" asked Zack, turning the bouquet over to the side with most whites. The old man looked alarmed.

"T-t-that one!" he pointed, with a shaky hand, the one the flower girl had given him for free. "B-be careful…!"

"Oh, this one!" Zack pulled the specific flower. "It really is pretty, isn't it?"

"It's called Midnight Frost," said the man, in a sudden business-like tone. "I'll buy it from you for ten gil, young man."

Zack just blinked at him.

The old man squirmed. "Fifty gil?"

Zack blinked again.

"A… hundred…"

Zack glanced down at the flower, trying to find anything special about it.

"…two hundred!"

Wait, remembered Zack, this is a clue for my next date. Then he felt silly for some reason.

"Three hundred!"

But then again, thought another part of his brain, you can just search the internet for info. It's not like that one has a hidden note or something, you searched just now.

"Five hundred!"

What was the name again? Midnight frost, right?

"A thousand!" squeaked the old man, and Zack offered the flower to him, grinning.

"Sold!" and the old man walked away with eyes filled with tears, holding the flower like it was glass, while Zack pocketed the extra thousand with a shrug. He didn't really think a thousand was a lot, but for a gil-worth flower given for free, it _was_ something.

While sitting boredly in the train home, it suddenly came to Zack that the flower's name was the supposed clue. His face glowed all shades of red; and when he stepped in his apartment, he had already made up his mind to find the church before midnight, whether his clue was wrong or right.

It was just as well that he did not search for info on the flower; he did not have the displeasure of finding out he had sold for a thousand gil a flower that was worth three hundred times that sum.

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It was 11:40pm when Zack finally found the not only abandoned, but half-destroyed church in Sector 5. He explored the area with the stealth of a man who survived Wutai's ninjas, then verified the fact that the church itself was the Flower Girl's work base after smashing a few flowers, oops. After that, he hid in between two pews to settle in for a few minutes' wait, and promptly fell asleep – as customary whenever he found himself in a horizontal position without a girl to busy himself with.

Sometimes he wondered if he was narcoleptic, but he always forgot to look further into it by the time he woke up again. This time he wouldn't have the opportunity to ask a doctor either – in fact, this time would be the time his life would be screwed, not for the first time, nor for the last. Problem is he'd lose the health plan.

A sudden, snapping explosion of a sound caused him to crack the seat of an old pew with his head as he jerked awake. War instinct kept him hidden and quiet even as he winced, eyes tearing up, and before he knew it, he had shrunk under another pew, checking his materia as he took in the sound of running feet, shots, panicked screaming and fighting. He bemoaned the lack of his Buster's weight on his back.

A willowy, graceful silhouette walked in from the main entrance, furtively, followed by a much clumsier and unsure figure. The two threaded carefully between the debris and broken wood, walking, Zack noticed wildly, right in the direction of his hiding place, and a pair of brown boots stopped right in front of his eyes.

Someone knocked on the pew's seat.

"Hey, Zack," a feminine voice whispered. "It's me, Aeris. You can come out."

Zack checked his memory bank wildly, and suddenly remembered the flower girl had introduced herself the third time they met. He couldn't remember if he had said his own name in return or not, but right now it was unimportant – for he suddenly remembered something else.

He was hiding under a pew because he was on a date.

Kicking the pew up, he jumped on his feet, grinning. "So _there_ you are!" …was what he was about to say, but couldn't.

Aeris was lovely, really. Hair pulled up in a braid, a brown short-sleeved jacket, a pink dress and sturdy leather boots, along with a backpack, a bangle with some cheap materia and a metal staff with two empty slots, the kind you can shrink to hide against a leg and pull up with a "HA!" when your enemy thought you were cornered. Her face was serious and drawn.

Wait.

_Waaaaaaaaait._

Surely she wasn't there to kick his ass. Womanizer or not, he wasn't nice to girls when they started the fight, but he didn't want to break her nose or anything. He glanced at the other figure, hoping it wasn't her angry boyfriend.

It was a middle aged woman, her hair pulled up in a knot, an old dress with a still dirty and somewhat wet apron over it and a backpack. She looked both angry and terrified.

He hoped fiercely they weren't going to try to beat him into marriage.

"Confused?" asked Aeris, finally smiling.

"Yes," Zack's wit failed him.

"Yes," echoed the middle-aged woman.

Aeris motioned to a pew close to her flowers. "Here, sit down. We have some time. Not much, but hopefully enough."

The two followed her to the specified pew, Zack wondering what was going to happen to his date, while the middle-aged woman wondered what was going to happen to the forgotten leftovers. The three sat, and promptly the church fell into such a deep, ominous silence, that Zack could hear the sounds of scuffle and screaming moving to the next sector without any strain to his ears.

He glanced at Aeris, wondering if she'd tell him what the hell was up or not, but she simply stared at the dark silhouette of her flowers, face once again drawn in concentration.

Suddenly, a dark blue suit materialized right by him. "…Zack?"

Zack jerked to his feet so quickly that, had he been under a pew, it would have broken in half. And it was with that jumpy disposition that he stared in utter disbelief at Tseng's face, while Tseng stared in utter disbelief at him.

How Tseng manage to slither so silently through a whole sector and into the debris-filled church, all the while dragging Zack's Buster Sword with both hands, was simply a testament to his mad Turk skills.

The mad Turk turned to Aeris, dot-eyed. "So… _this_ is why you wanted me to bring this specific sword." Aeris nodded, and Tseng wordlessly handed the sword to its owner.

Zack just made a mental note to talk to his doctor in the morning. (This is where his lack of health plan will affect him most.)

"Now can any of you tell me what's going on!" the middle-aged woman bursted, and Tseng just nodded to Aeris, before turning to the woman.

"Mrs. Gainsborough, I'm sorry to inform you that you'll have to be relocated and remain under heavy supervision for your own security. As for your daughter," he glanced towards Aeris, "I'm as much in the dark as you are concerning her future plans."

"I'd think it was obvious to you," said Aeris simply. "I'm going to enlist Zack's help and lead them away."

Zack couldn't remain gaping anymore.

"H-hey, how come I'm the last one to know this?" he looked from Aeris to her mother to Tseng and back to Aeris. "What the hell is going on? Is this why you asked me to come?"

Aeris just nodded, and Zack was about to open his mouth and complain loudly when the sound of scurrying feet reached his ears, and he turned sharply to the church's entrance.

His eyes narrowed, but then relaxed. Just a cat.

With a crown.

And a cape.

The cat walked up to Aeris and nodded. "All's ready!" he sing-sang. "We can depart any minute now. You might find this useful," he handed Zack another backpack (his new one, he recognized), which the young man accepted in mute stupefiement, and then turned back to Aeris. "So you left the poor guy in the dark? Just like you to do that."

Aeris giggled, shaking her head. "I meant to come earlier and explain, but it wasn't possible…" she fiddled with her backpack's zipper for a second, then added, more seriously: "How much longer do we have?"

"Ten minutes at most," said the cat, in a completely different tone of voice and manner of speech, to Zack's further surprise. "Tseng, you go do your stuff. Mrs. Gainsborough," the cat turned to the woman, squeezing her hand in an oddly human gesture, "I know this is sudden, but everything will be explained in due time. Tseng will take you to a safe place for the time being, then we'll hopefully be able to talk again. Now go, it's not safe here."

Mrs. Gainsborough stood up, staring wide-eyed at her daughter, and the two suddenly embraced. Without another word, the mother took her backpack and followed Tseng out, their footsteps soon disappearing.

The cat turned to Zack. "I'm Cait Sith, it's a pleasure to meet you!" it chirped, suddenly sounding as if it had injected an illegal amount of sugar into its system.

"Aah," answered Zack.

"Do you think it's a nice thing to experiment on humans?" asked the cat, in the same hyper voice.

"Aah!" Zack blinked.

"Do you think it's a nice thing to kidnap pretty girls, lock them in labs and drug and implant and cut pieces off them?" asked the cat again, index finger pointing up.

Zack glanced from the cat to Aeris, who just smiled ruefully. He had a feeling he should be feeling horribly indignant, afraid or angry at what the cat was telling him, but he just felt like he had been hit over the head with a few too many beer bottles. Still…

"Hell no," he said. After all, you don't cut pieces off people if they don't try to cut you first.

He suddenly heard a gunshot, and was blocking it with his sword before he even noticed. Turning to the church's entrance, he suddenly felt another beer bottle crashing against his brain. Turks.

He turned to Aeris, who just widened her eyes in that scary way his mother used to favor when she wanted to keep him from saying something stupid. Looking back to the now approaching Turks, all of them armed and looking as smug as ever, his brain finally shook the beer and shards off and started working again.

Tseng, of all people, was backstabbing the Turks – and Shin-ra at it.

And Shin-ra was the thing that was trying to kidnap Aeris, to experiment on her, lock her in labs and drug her and implant and cut pieces off her.

The Turks had surrounded them. Reno was tapping his rod against a shoulder, smirking; Luciolle, always serious, simply cocked her gun and aimed; two of what were apparently newbie Turks assumed their stances, the serious guy with fists clenched while the long-haired girl brandished a shotgun, grinning almost maniacally.

Four Turks against a girl.

And they were going to experiment on her, lock her and drug her and implant and cut pieces off…

Suddenly hit by the wrongness of it all, Zack grabbed Aeris by her waist and lunged for Reno, who he knew was the most incompetent Turk by default, and didn't need to do much more than looking threatening to make the redhead dive out of the way. Shrugging the feeble thunder attack and dodging some scarily accurate shots by a hair, he followed Aeris' pointing finger to a small side door, climbing the rickety, half-rotten stairs five steps a time while the crazy shotgun girl rained bullets on them.

In no time he found himself on the roof, where the crazy cat seemed to have magically teleported to ahead of them, and, after hearing more shotgunning downstairs, the threesome started over to some nearby roofs, running like crazy until the church, the Turks and the Sector 5 were safely far away.

Zack set Aeris back on the ground, then stared at her for five minutes while his brain tried to recover from the beer bottles.

He had run into it on pure gut, and now bye-bye paycheck, bye-bye health plan, bye-bye free time and bye-bye date. Not only that, but he was on Shin-ra's shit list, for sure.

"I'm screwed," he said.

"Sorry," she giggled.

And this is how the story begins.

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February 20, 2006: FIRST CHAPTER OVER OMG. Now for rereading and making sure it's not too crazy.


	2. Condor Mountain

Child of the Mountain

Chapter 2

March 7, 2006: Started this chapter… or tried to.

Note: just in case you're wondering, "Luciolle" is the blonde Turk from Before Crisis, that one who turned out to be Elena's older sister. The name is, obviously, made up. Other BC characters have shown up as well, but I held back on naming them. They'll probably show up again later on, though.

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It was around the asscrack of dawn (not that it could be seen) when the runaway trio finally stopped their trek through the bustling slum dwellers, who were still calming down from the mess conveniently caused by a bunch of ragtag terrorists.

Their destination: Sector 1 Gate To The Outside World.

Why they couldn't use any other gate was beyond Zack; he did have a pass, the cat made sure to stuff anything remotely useful in his backpack, and the earliest they used it, the earliest they'd be out before it was cancelled. However, Cait seemed to have other plans, and Aeris was complying so far.

He tried to organize the information he had about his current "mission" so far – it was all he could do while the two didn't explain things properly.

Shin-ra was trying to kidnap Aeris.

Shin-ra intended to perform human experimentation on Aeris.

Shin-ra actually performed human experimentation.

Tseng hid Aeris' mother and let her run away.

Tseng betrayed Shin-ra in doing that.

Tseng had Mad Turk Skills.

The cat could talk.

It could also walk on its hind legs.

He had been set up to get involved in the mess.

He was screwed.

It came to him once or twice to just cut the cat in half, gonk the girl's head and take her to Shin-ra, but he knew he was just being bitter and couldn't actually do that. First, he was a sucker with a mellow heart. Second, he always knew Shin-ra did some uncool things, and had been vaguely bothered by it, but now felt like a bastard for never doing anything about it. Third, the girl was cute. Fourth, he was curious. Curiosity killed the cat.

He glanced at Cait and wondered if it'd drop dead or something.

"It should only take a minute now," said the cat, instead of dropping dead. "An acquaintance is going to pass by and pick us up, then drop us off outside at a safe distance. After that, we'll be on our own."

"And then what?" mumbled Zack.

"Talk, probably," shrugged Cait. It was the weirdest sight ever. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"I do," sighed Zack, "but I don't think I'd know where to begin."

Cait just smiled up to him (or maybe that was his normal face), and suddenly Zack's eyes started burning furiously. Staring up at the dinky store ahead of him, he willed his eyes to remain dry of any pesky tear, and, pressing his lips into a thin line, he tried to ignore the fact that his nose was clogging up.

The fuck is wrong, he asked himself, you're not like this. But I'm hungry, sleepy, dateless and screwed, answered himself, you can't blame me. Well, said he, that might be true, but it's no excuse to start sobbing like a PMSing little girl. But, but, argued himself, everything was going so well, then suddenly it went so wrong… too much wrongness for too short a span of time! I'm still reeling!

And reel he did, as a weight greater than any gym machine could provide seemed to pull his head down, engulfing the dinky store up ahead in a black, swirling fog full of colored little stars that seemed to show up and fade almost at the same time.

Someone held him up, and he was about to mumble some thanks when the same someone suddenly started pushing his head down almost painfully. Ack, stop that, he wanted to say, but there was something gooey in his mouth, and nothing seemed to come out.

The pushing stopped without warning, and he gratefully raised his head to meet Aeris' very serious face, shrouded by darkness.

"You were snoring," said Aeris.

"Srry, 'm narclept," he said, the goo still stubbornly clinging to his tongue. "Thnk, n't srr, wusgnaskdctr."

"Uh, right," Aeris raised an eyebrow, then shifted on her seat and closed her eyes, leaning against the wall. That was when Zack noticed they were in a truck of sorts, full of old sofas, car seats and people sleeping on them, and it was pleasantly dark in there.

The hell is this, illegal immigration, he wondered, shifting into a more comfortable position on his own dilapidated sofa. That must have been what Cait Sith was talking about. So when I wake up again we'll be at a safe distance from Midgar, right? Cool with me. How the hell did I end up in here again?

He mentally shrugged. The fact that he was a sleepwalker was something he'd always known about. As long as he didn't do anything too dumb, like walking into a train, he was totally cool with walking and resting at the same time. Legend said he had typed a full report while snoring once, and while he obviously couldn't remember any of it, he did think it was cool. Unfortunately, the report was filled with random phrases like "Please to be apparently appeared to requested admissive number of burn", and it had brought tears of mirth to his superior's eyes, who then proceeded to post it at the SOLDIER's forum, where he was able to exert more of his random phrasing prowess by answering the forum goers with things like "Stick fridge of up the bum that's not the scoop and merely transmission". Translation programs proved able to portray his sleeptyping tendencies rather accurately.

Someone shoved something in his mouth, and he opened his eyes to see Cait Sith's fingers neatly fit between his lips. He glanced to the side, where a fellow commuter was glaring at him.

"You were snoring," he accused. Zack shrugged, pulling a handkerchief to unclog his still clogged nose. Having socks shoved into his mouth used to be common back when he shared dorms, and he couldn't blame anyone when his snoring was also legendarily loud. It used to wake him up as well, back when he was a kid.

He experimentally bit on Cait's fingers, not feeling nearly as surprised as he thought he would when he found out Cait's fingers had no bones. Not only that, but the cat didn't even seem to feel it. In fact, his hand had the distinctive texture of cloth, and the mass of teddy bear stuffing. Looking down, he finally noticed Cait was, indeed, a stuffed cat.

He closed his eyes, trying not to think about how the hell the cat moved. Technology, wow. And he talked like he actually had vocal chords. Shin-ra had some neato toys.

Someone shook him, and he was about to apologize for snoring when he noticed the truck's back door was open and bright, blinding, torturous sunlight was attacking his eyes. Blinking blearily, he sat up, noticing most other illegal immigrants(?) were still asleep, and Aeris seemed perfectly awake and ready to go. Cait Sith's upper body hung from her backpack.

"Um," he blinked.

"He's still asleep," she said, before he even thought to ask. "He was awake for a long time yesterday, taking care of us. Now let's go, our next ride is right outside."

He stumbled up, grabbing his backpack and the sword leaning against the inner wall, and stumbled after the girl, blinking the sleepiness away. In most stories, there was always a time when the hero woke up in a weird place wondering if he was back home and the rest was a bad dream. Zack wondered if that should have happened to him, instead of feeling so perfectly normal and in control after betraying the most powerful conglomerate in the world, but then again, maybe it was because he wasn't feeling very heroic at the moment.

He stretched, looking around at the grass and the midday sun and the pale sky nostalgically. It _had_ been a while since he last left the metal forest that was Midgar.

The truck started again and sped away, mercilessly trampling grass on its wake – and revealing the familiar pens and wooden houses of the chocobo ranch, less than half a mile away.

"Oh, so we're riding chocobos," said Zack, hoping against all hope he was right.

"Yes, chocobos," said Aeris, and Zack did a mental victory dance. "We'll cross the marsh and the Mythril Mines to get to Condor Mountain," she glanced back to him, "and then we'll be able to fill you in on what drove us to this situation."

He scowled at her. "Yes, you damn well should give me a damn good excuse for involving me in this damn_HICCUP_—"

He froze, covering his mouth.

Aeris blinked, then failed in hiding a smile.

Zack's ears started burning painfully.

Aeris smiled openly.

He grinned dorkily.

The two laughed.

"Eeerm, okay," Zack waved a hand, as if trying to bat away at the laughter waves. "I guess we should just get moving. Ladies first!" he bowed, stepping aside and motioning to the ranch's general direction. Aeris curtseyed with a perky smile and walked by him, giggling, while holding a fold of her skirt with the tips of two fingers.

Three mandragoras jumped out of the grass.

"EEEEK!"

"SAKJHGSAK—" Zack jumped to the side to catch her by the arm, while being forced to swing his sword at the most awkward arch he had ever thought possible, and kicked the one surviving plant high up enough for it to land on a nearby hill.

Another awkward pause ensued.

"Enough is enough," Zack broke the silence. "Let's get them chocobos and get going. At least that way we'll be able to move and talk."

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"It was only yesterday," said Aeris, blushing and hugging Zack's waist.

"Congratulations!" Bill's arms were open almost as wide as his freaky smile. "You make such a _great_ couple!"

Zack smirked. "You know, when you find _the_ girl, you have to grab her before someone else does," he caressed Aeris' hair, "and take her away on top of a white chocobo, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, Gary, that was so _cute_," Aeris nuzzled his shoulder.

Bill sniffed, wiping a random tear. "That brings back memories of my dear old Alicia," he clarified. "We were just as young as you two when we married!"

"I'm sure the two of you were very happy," Aeris smiled.

"Oh, we were, we were," Bill grinned. "Now, which of those chocobos did you two reserve?"

Aeris pulled a slip of paper from a pocket. "Hm, Karol and Line, in the name of Mrs. Caithleen Sith. That would be my mother," she clarified with a smile.

Bill nodded, checking a list, then led the two to the pens.

"Have a happy honeymoon," he said, grinning, as the two mounted their chocobos.

"Oh, we will," Zack said, with a wave of his hand, and the two trotted away on their new chocobos, Karol and Line.

Once they were a safe distance away, Zack started snickering. Aeris raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny, Gary dear?" she asked, sweetly.

"Oh, nothing in particular, sweetmuffins!" Zack flashed her a charming grin. "Now, what are we going to do in our honeymoon?"

"My dear sweet cherry-flavored sugarcrispy lover, we'll drink rat poison if we keep on being naughty."

"What!" Zack broke out in laughter. "That's no fun! You evil, evil girl!" he shook his head in amusement as Aeris, too, finally started giggling. "But that was damn funny. Poor Bill…"

"I was afraid he'd recognize you, actually," said Aeris. "You've got to have used his chocobos once in your life, haven't you?"

"Last time I did I wasn't even a SOLDIER yet," Zack said, scrunching up an eyebrow as if squeezing his brain for a memory. "If he did, he probably thought I was actually my evil twin, Gary the Scary."

He looked up at the approaching marsh, Aeris snorting in flat out laughter by him, and followed the almost invisible line of the Zolom's body with his eyes. It was pretty close to the shore, and yet the chocobos were going at a calm, even pace; the Zolom didn't seem to take notice of them either.

The chocobos calmly trotted into the murky waters, threading on the uncertain shallows between dripping bushes and deep puddles, heedless of the rippling shadow under the surface. Zack's eyes were paranoidly fixated on the creature, knowing it homed in on any presence in its territory by following the waves made by movement; yet, it was calmly swimming to the opposite shore.

He glanced at Aeris and could swear she had just glanced away from him.

Was that why Shin-ra was so interested in her? She seemed to make strange things happen around her. She seemed to know when things were going to happen (Cait was a lot creepier in that department, yeah, but he seemed to have access to information). She was always so serene and apparently in control of any complicated situation… a good example being how she had roped him in to take care of her physical well-being.

He felt mildly frustrated, but shrugged it off. They were arriving at the Mythril Mines, and after that, an explanation, hopefully.

They soon arrived at the opposite shore (the Zolom having drifted towards the surrounding mountains), dismounting their chocobos. Zack patted Line's beak, lost in thoughts.

"We can try to catch another chocobo on the other side," said Aeris, understandingly. "But, really, between the mines and Condor…"

"I know, I know, almost no distance," sighed Zack. "Look, don't mind me. Even I need to angst a little sometimes."

He tried to force his old grin out, and it came out mostly okay; still, Aeris squeezed one of his hands, and he felt suddenly awkward.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice slightly strained, and Zack's heart started beating faster as he thought maybe _maybe_ he would get his chance to… "I… I wouldn't have involved you in this, but--"

"IT WAS MY IDEA!" Cait Sith suddenly sprang into life, and Aeris all but hurled Zack's hand away. "You've made good progress today," continued the cat, oblivious to Aeris' guilty look and Zack's flat stare, "That's good, very good. Sorry I was out for most of it, I had a nasty pile of paperwork that ended up requiring most of my concentration. Anyway, I just thought I should warn you there are two Turks waiting for you in there and three others just left Kalm in this direction."

"So you're the bearer of shitty news?" grumbled Zack, bereft of his chance to take advantage of the romantic setting.

"Oh, we really didn't need that," Aeris started squeezing her hands, her usual demeanor apparently broken by her embarrassment. "The last thing I want after last night is another run-in with that crazy shotgunner!"

"She's not there," informed Cait, helpfully. "There's only Luciolle and Rude."

"Well, that's better," Zack patted Line's flank twice, and the chocobo obediently turned tail to trot back home, followed by Karol. "Lucy's a dangerous bitch, but with only Rude to cover her back I can handle her without a sweat."

"This information brought to you by Cait Sith, Inc." continued Cait.

"I don't know…" Aeris pulled her staff out, setting some materia in its slots. "Luciolle was actually very friendly the few times she was sent after me. Rude's sort of creepy, always lumbering around in shades, even at night."

"Rude's a dork," Zack walked up to the cave's entrance. "There are betting pools trying to figure out how many spare shades he carries around. Whenever one breaks, he whips another on right after."

"For more information, call our Customer Service at 1-800-CAITSITH," said Cait, wobbling a little in his spot halfway out of Aeris' backpack.

"What the fuck is up with him, by the way?" Zack asked, eyeing Cait with a raised brow.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuh," Aeris blinked. "Actually, I'm not sure. I think it's some sort of low-battery mode. He starts giving customer service numbers and then plays some annoying song."

On cue, the disturbing sound of piano keys started coming from the cat, playing Shin-ra's favorite elevator song. Zack stared at the plush animal for a few minutes, nonplussed, then decided to chalk it up to the rampant weirdness that seemed to have invaded his life since the previous day, and the two(three) finally walked into the cave.

Zack was half expecting to be greeted with a bullet as soon as they turned the first corner, what with annoying Pour Elise echoing through every concavity of the stone, but, to his surprise, nothing jumped on them apart from a Zemzellet. Still, when Cait suddenly went silent, and Aeris started slinking towards the shadows without so much as a warning, he wasn't the least bit shocked. Pulling his sword with a sigh, he leaned against the cave wall, and finally heard the light sound of footsteps.

The Turks really were pros, to sneak that close to him. Then again, Cait was playing loud enough to echo. He shrugged, and casually batted a bullet away with his sword.

"Long time no see, Rude, Lucy," he smirked, striking the coolest pose he could think of. It ended up with him leaning on a leg and his sword on his shoulder. Bleh.

He could almost hear a light intake of breath. The footsteps started again, not trying to hide this time, and Luciolle stepped out of the darkness, quietly followed by Rude.

"I guess your senses have sharpened since last time," she said, softly, gun raised.

"I guess you could say so," he raised his sword, swinging it lazily. "I wonder what brings you here, though. Did you miss me that much?"

"I did," she pointed the gun straight at him, "but I assure you I won't miss this time."

Zack smiled, calmly positioned the sword in front of him to block any incoming bullet—

By sheer instinct he jumped to the left, dodging Rude's fist, and only his reflexes saved him from the shot. Batting the bullet away, he landed a little closer to Aeris than he'd have liked, but he wasn't very worried.

He was First Class for a reason. And Luciolle had barely cocked her gun for another shot when he stepped behind her, hitting the back of her head with the blunt of his Buster.

"Nice try," he conceded to the fallen woman, and glanced at Rude.

The bald man frowned, but dropped his stance. "I'll take her back," he said.

"You do that," Zack smirked, stepping away as Rude raised Luciolle in his arms, walking towards the cave's entrance as stoically as always.

Zack raised an eyebrow, wondering how Rude supposed he was going to cross the marshes without a chocobo _and_ carrying an unconscious woman, but the Turks from Kalm were probably mounted and could pick them up. He frowned. Having a Turk go the opposite way you were going to was good, yeah, but that meant the Turk would have a nice view of your backside if he decided he had forgotten to do something.

Aeris sort of drifted towards him, glancing uneasily the way Rude went to, and he couldn't help pushing her in front of him. "Lead the way," he said when she blinked at him. Fortunately, she just shrugged and did as told; he wasn't sure he could explain his reasoning, principally now that he had such a nice view of _her_ backside.

It came as a surprise when she suddenly stopped walking and turned to him.

"Zack, did you hear that?"

"Uh?" he blinked, glancing up to her face. "Erm, don't think so."

She stared at him, brows flat, as he finally took in his surroundings, including the mountain with a reactor perched on its top, and the guy in front of a cave entrance, dressed in some kind of makeshift uniform, who was apparently appreciating the view he had been checking just a few seconds ago.

"Another cave?" he raised an eyebrow.

"You just noticed?" Aeris asked, nonplussed. "Were you sleepwalking again?"

"………yes, I think I was, sorry," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, let's just go in," she pulled him by the arm, past the guard (who seemed saddened by her departure) and into a surprisingly well-lit, well-ventilated and well-populated cave.

They started by a hallway that would have been wide and airy, had it not been packed with people. Dodging the workers, who busily moved about, climbing stairs, setting lamps and picking at the stone with the diligence of bees, he couldn't help feeling awe swelling up inside him.

Shin-ra tried mining for mythril at Condor Mountain not too long ago, finding nothing but lifestream in it. And anyway these people would _not_ be mining for what could be abundantly found a few miles north.

And the black-crossed Shin-ra flags, along with the usage of gas lamps over mako-powered light bulbs, spoke against the possibility of them searching for lifestream veins, despite the occasional sputtering gush of the substance around the tip of a pickaxe.

Aeris would stop by such little gushers, pensively, while some workers paused to look at her almost reverentially; he'd hear the words "holy maiden" spread around them like a wave with every step they took. And the more he heard them, the more he felt they made some sort of sense.

They finally reached what seemed to be an almost finished room, surrounded by carved trails that led the lifestream to a small pool in its center. From the center of the pool rose a stone basin, which received a trickle of water – water, without any apparent trace of lifestream – from a stalactite on the ceiling. The maybe several millennia of trickling water had, apparently, caused a rock growth in the middle of the basin, and several spikes of a softly glowing crystal were collected on it.

The water dropped right on top of the glowing crystal, sprinkling around to the basin, which overflowed into the mako pool. It was an entrancing image, and Zack stood halfway into the room, staring wide-eyed at it; the soft, white light was strangely beckoning, and the water itself seemed to have a light of its own, and he wanted to drink from it… only he had the purely instinctive feeling he didn't have the _right_ to touch it.

Aeris didn't seem at all bothered by it, though; she calmly walked up to an old man he just noticed was by the basin, and said something to him. He answered with a smile, bowing a little, then beckoned to him to come closer.

He walked hesitantly, not sure if it was his place to be so close to something so… so… so _something_ like that; still, as soon as he was close enough, the old man smiled to him as well, offering a hand to shake.

"Welcome to Fort Condor, my son," he said, and Zack knew he wasn't being a paranoid veteran when he thought the whole thing looked like a fortress in the making.

--------------------------------

May 6, 2006: Whee, done. The chapter was supposed to go a little further, but this seemed like a good stopping place, so there it is.

And something I forgot to warn about before: there'll be some glaring anachronisms in this fic, FFVII-verse wise (Fort Condor itself being an example), but bear with me. It's an AU, after all. There are more to come, too :D


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